Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Staff | June 24, 2020 While 87 per cent of Canadian employees who started working remotely for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic believe it will have a long-term impact on the way they work, just 22 per cent said their employer has confirmed working arrangements will be more flexible permanently, according to a new survey by technology solutions firm VMware Canada. It also found 17 per cent of employees said plans to return to the office haven’t been clearly communicated. However, 26 per cent of new remote workers said they don’t want to go back to the way they used to work before the pandemic. Read: Remote working, distributed workforces could be part of new normal post-coronavirus “Canadians want more choice and flexibility in how they work post COVID-19,” said Sean Forkan, vice-president and country manager at VMware Canada, in a press release. “The evolution in their thinking is outpacing that of employers — they want to know that flexible working is here to stay. The information gap or ‘virtual vacuum’ that has emerged is a key challenge for business leaders to address. The next normal will and needs to be a distributed workforce — employers need to enable working anytime, anywhere and with any technology because working...

PR Newswire Given this year’s tax deadline is extended to July 15, now is an ideal time for consumers to reevaluate their retirement plans, assess how COVID-19 has impacted their financial goals and develop a strategy to optimize taxes in retirement. According to the 2019 Tax-Efficient Retirement Income survey conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of The Nationwide Retirement Institute® among U.S. adults age 50+ who are currently retired or planning to retire in the next 10 years, a third of  current retirees (35%) did not consider how taxes would affect their retirement income when planning for retirement. As a result, many express regrets, with a third of retirees (32%) reporting they wish they had better prepared for paying taxes in retirement. “With many Americans already reviewing their finances while submitting their taxes, as well as assessing how COVID-19 has impacted their financial goals, it’s an ideal time to also examine their plans for taxes in retirement,” said Eric Henderson, president of Nationwide’s Annuity business. “The reality is many older adults are not considering or knowledgeable about taxes in retirement.” The survey found two in five future retirees (38%) are terrified of what taxes will do to their retirement...

By Greg Boutin, CEO, Relay Platform — In our last blog post, we spoke about how Relay differs from other so-called “Placement Platforms”; now, let’s talk about the benefits. There are many, but they can be categorized in five main ones: CAPACITY: Relay provides a faster, more attractive way for cedents and brokers to structure stronger, cleaner submissions for capacity providers, which increases success rate and turns into more opportunities closed. This is becoming even more compelling in the context of scarcer capacity. COST: Relay digitizes a previously manual part of the process and reduces transaction costs overnight for capacity seekers, brokers and providers. Relay can achieve up to 50% transaction cost reduction (this does not include broker fees, although certain brokers are willing to review their fees for cleaner submissions) by eliminating the back-and-forths for information, which drives efficiencies through the value chain. Relay also eliminates the hidden cost and risk of poor and lost records due to an over-reliance on emails; For reinsurers, Relay provides its basic quote service in Fac for free, unlike all other commercial platforms. Relay also offers better integrations, including turning email, pdf and ACORD forms into structured data, and is actually used in...

New policy responds to increase in online events under social distancing London, UK (June 23, 2020) – Specialist insurer Beazley has launched a contingency policy designed to cover event organizers if a transmission failure disrupts or cancels a virtual event. Streaming live events is not new in itself, however with social distancing rules in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19, many major events have been either cancelled, postponed or moved online. Beazley’s virtual events transmission policy supports organizers whose success relies on technology platforms providing seamless transmission or broadcast to their audiences. If an event is cancelled due to transmission failure, the policy covers first-party losses including organizational costs, expenses, or gross revenue from advertising and ticket sales. The cover is available on a global basis and offers limits of up to $10m. Mark Symons, contingency underwriter at Beazley, said: “For a long time, many events, from business conferences through to music festivals, have had an online element, which has been covered by endorsement to an event insurance policy. However, as a result of the coronavirus we are seeing far more events either being reorganized or created from scratch for purely virtual audiences. Even with lockdown easing, we expect...

Long-term care (LTC) insurance might be a tough sell as a stand-alone product, but the idea of LTC coverage bundled with life insurance still appeals to many consumers. That was the takeaway from new research released by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, which is based on a survey of 1,250 US adults aged 30 through 60 conducted in November. As reported in ThinkAdvisor, around one third (32%) of the consumers polled said they’re considering buying insurance that would cover chronic care or LTC. Just over a fifth (22%) said they believe they already had that type of coverage. Separating the respondents by age group, MassMutual found that younger consumers were more likely to be interested in LTC coverage. Among those between 30 and 40 years old, 42% expressed interest in that benefit, compared to just 36% of 41- to 50-year-olds and 26% of 51- to 60-year-olds. Survey participants with incomes from US$75,000 to US$100,000 were also more likely to be interested in getting LTC coverage than higher-earning respondents. Researchers attributed that partly to the fact that 29% of those earning more than US$100,000 in household income reportedly already had some form of chronic care or LTC insurance protection. Of those...

SSQ Insurance is joining the fast-growing trend of digital life insurance issuance with three new simplified life insurance products. “The launch of these products is part of our strategy to continually innovate our digital offering in line with market needs,” Éric Trudel, senior vice-president for Strategy and Product Management, SSQ Insurance, said in a statement. The three new products, which the insurer said will allow customers to apply for and get coverage in under 60 minutes, include: Simplified Term Life – offered with 10- or 20-year terms and a maximum insurance amount of $500,000; Simplified Whole Life – comes with a maximum insurance amount of $249,999; and Guaranteed Issue Whole Life – comes with a maximum coverage amount of $50,000 Aside from requiring no medical exam, the new life insurance products are offered through a paperless process. Advisors can sell the products remotely via a secure electronic application and e-signature, with the ability to send digital contact details to customers. The Simplified Term Life and Simplified Whole Life products also come with an extreme disability benefit, through which 50% of the initial insurance amount may be payable in advance up to a maximum amount of $250,000. The benefit is paid...

Staff | June 23, 2020 The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is joining a consortium of other institutional investors to invest in certain gas pipeline assets of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. The assets are valued at $20.7 billion and the other investors include Global Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, NH Investment & Securities Co Ltd. and Snam, an Italian energy infrastructure firm. Collectively the consortium is acquiring a 49 per cent stake in the assets, which takes the form of a newly created subsidiary of the oil company, ADNOC Gas Pipeline Assets. As part of the deal, the parent company will lease its ownership interest to ADNOC Gas Pipeline Assets for 20 years in exchange for a volume-based tariff subject to a floor and a cap, noted a press release. The new subsidiary will distribute 100 per cent of free cash to the investors in the form of quarterly dividends. The deal will result in upfront proceeds of $10 billion to the parent company, subject to customary regulatory approvals. Read: How institutional investors weigh energy transition risks, opportunities “This strategic transaction is attractive to Ontario Teachers’ as it provides us with a stake in a high-quality infrastructure asset with stable long-term cash flows,...

PR Newswire WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., June 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Amalgamated Life Insurance Company (www.amalgamatedbenefits.com), a leading provider of comprehensive insurance solutions, announced that it and its affiliated companies, have completed a rebranding initiative designed to better reflect the “Amalgamated Family of Companies” and leverage the brand equity in the flagship company’s name, “Amalgamated.” Under the umbrella of the Amalgamated Family of Companies, which will use the tagline, From Insurance & Benefit Administration to Care Management, the rebrand resulted in name changes and new taglines assigned to certain family member companies. They are as follows: the third party administrator’s name is changing from AliCare to Amalgamated Employee Benefits Administrators using the tagline, Delivering High Quality, Customized TPA Services and the medical care management firm, AliCare Medical Management, will be known as Amalgamated Medical Care Management, Quality Clinical Advice & Care. The organization’s printing firm will continue operating as AliGraphics, One Resource for All Your Printing & Promotional Needs and its property and casualty broker will remain Amalgamated Agency. As for Amalgamated Life Insurance Company, its tagline will continue to be Group Stop Loss Voluntary. President and CEO Paul Mallen stated, “Our organization has grown considerably from the single entity, Amalgamated Life...

Staff | June 23, 2020 The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario is updating its guidance for pension plans around filing deadlines and member communications. The update reflects the government of Ontario’s regulations amending the Pension Benefits Act. The amendments are effective as of June 18 or some period relative to that date, which may mean the regulation changes won’t provide relief to some administrators if their deadlines are outside the relief period.  “Where the regulations do not provide an extension in the circumstances of a particular plan, administrators should contact their pension officer and describe the circumstances and relief sought,” said the guidance. Read: FSRA responds to questions on filing deadlines, pension transactions As well, as the FSRA announced in March, pension plan administrators and their authorized agents are allowed to request a filing extension of up to 60 days. If an extension isn’t available and the administrator has contacted the FSRA explaining the issue of complying with the deadline, “where appropriate, FSRA will not levy administrative monetary penalties for non-compliance,” the guidance said. “However, the administrator should still consider other possible effects of filing late.” As for plans that are having trouble with deadlines around member disclosure information, the amended regulations also provide extensions, requiring that plan administrators notify the FSRA,...

Staff | June 23, 2020 About three-quarters (72 per cent) of Canadians with a workplace health benefits plan have a traditional plan and 28 per cent have a flex plan, according to the 2020 Sanofi Canada health-care survey. This is up slightly from 2017, when 80 per cent of plan members said they had a traditional plan and 19 per cent said they have a flex plan. Among plan sponsor respondents with a traditional plan, 67 per cent said they’d prefer to offer a flex plan. This number was broken down into 43 per cent that said they’re considering it and 24 per cent that said there are too many barriers. Read: Employees overwhelmed by flex plan decisions: Sanofi survey The survey also found 57 per cent of plan sponsors offer health-care spending accounts, comparable to last year’s findings (61 per cent) and up significantly from the previous two years (33 per cent in 2018 and 31 per cent in 2017). While large employers, with 500 or more employees, were much more likely than smaller employers, with fewer than 250 employees, to offer HCSAs (73 per cent versus 42 per cent), the survey found growth is strong across all sizes. About half (51 per...